Causes of the French Revolution

“It is with regret that I pronounce the fatal truth: Louis ought to perish rather than a hundred thousand virtuous citizens: Louis must die that the country may live.” (Robespierre) With Louis XI in power the people of France will perish and Robespierre’s solution to this is to put an end to his life. Louis was a weak king and was easily persuaded by the last person he talked to. His rule caused great suffering in France and was completely oblivious to it. The commoners had no power what so ever and where controlled basically by the first two estates. They were taxed the heaviest, they had a little more than half of the land and they made up almost the whole population. All of this angered the commoners thus sparking the Revolution. The life of a peasant in France could be summed up to a disparity of wealth. The nobility was taxed very little while the commoners where taxed heavily. Even though the commoners had almost no money they were still taxed so heavily that they could barely even buy bread. The only food affordable was bread until it was raised so high that that it no longer could be afforded. Bakeries began to be ransacked and people went mad fighting over food. The commoners are starving and are being crushed be taxes. While this is going on the upper classes are having parties and eating abundances of food. No one cares about the commoners including the king and that is why this is such an impact on the French Revolution. If no one cared about the commoners then how would they ever get the attention they needed? The treatment of the different classes was a mess of social inequality. The first estate, Roman Catholic clergy, made one percent of the population but owned ten percent of the land. It was the richest estate and paid no direct taxes. The second estate, nobles, made less than two percent of the population and had thirty-five percent of the land. It was a rich estate and also paid no taxes. Now the third estate, commoners, made ninety-seven...

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Nevertheless, the Ancien Régime was brought down, partly by its own rigidity in the face of a changing world, partly by the ambitions of a rising bourgeoisie, allied with aggrieved peasants and wage-earners and with individuals of all classes who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. As the revolution proceeded and as power devolved from the monarchy to legislative bodies, the conflicting interests of these initially allied groups would become the source of conflict and bloodshed.
Assembly of Notables 1787
An "Assembly of Notables" was called to outflank the parlements. It was not the same as Estates General. But the notables in criticized Calonne's plans and demanded a greater role for the aristocracy in government.
The Assembly of Notables also said the government had no right to demand new taxes, and that an Estates General (last called 1614) must be called again.
The King was forced to dismiss...

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Under the Old Order, the king was at the top, and three social groups called estates were under him. These groups varied widely in what they contributed to France, in terms of both work and taxes. Document 2 illustrates the three estates in 1789 and the land each held during the Old Regime. According to this diagram, the First Estate was made up of the Roman Catholic clergy, about one percent of the population. Neither the clergy nor the Roman Catholic Church had to pay taxes. Land belonging to the Roman Catholic Church was also exempt from taxes. Furthermore, the church owned about ten percent of France’s land, which produced vast sums of money in rents and...

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...Assignment I: Causes of the FrenchRevolution
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Ultimately, King Louis XVI recognized that the taxation dilemma actually needed to be dealt with, so he selected a new Controller General of Finances and First Minister, Charles de Calonne. Calonne was a French statesman whose pains to restructure the configuration of his nation’s finance administration hastened the governmental disaster that eventually led to the Revolution. Calonne recommended that France start taxing the formerly exempt nobility. But the nobility rejected this proposal, even when Calonne implored with them throughout the Assembly of...

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First, the vast majority of the debts held by the French were from wars. The Seven Years war which started in 1756 took place in both Europe and North America. It had the French fighting the English for naval and commercial superiority. The French lost this war. As a result, the French lost their North American colonies which were a good source of revenue for the country. This war also decimated the French army and navy. The French...

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...﻿Introduction
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Social structure
Primary cause of the FrenchRevolution was social structure. The old Regime refers to the measures of governance based on Monarchy/king and whose powers was despotic call authority vested on the Monarchy. During despotism the French society divided into three estates, the first estate, second estate, and the third estate.
The first estates were the clergy and priests, the second estate were the nobilities or nobles, and the third state were the bourgeoisie, urban labours and peasants.
The first estate or the clergy were enjoying privileges and the clergy did not pay tax instead determined the amount. The second estate enjoyed some privileges, they owned between one-quarter and one third of the land. The third estate were not enjoying any privileges, however, its success depended on the support given by the rest of the third estate. There was a vast inequality...